


All the Comforts of Home

by viceversa



Category: The Fall (TV 2013), The X-Files
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 11:17:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18409544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viceversa/pseuds/viceversa
Summary: prompt: Please write a sickfic with scully taking care of stella when she gets the flu!





	All the Comforts of Home

“Um, hello?” Dana paused just inside her door and answered the unknown number, expecting a rare telemarketer. Since getting her England phone number, she hadn’t had one yet.

“Is this… Dana Scully?” A quiet voice asked, almost whispering. Dana’s attention shot up. This was no sales call.

“Yes – and who is this?”

“Oh! Sorry. It’s Treena, from the Met? I don’t know if you remember me.”

Treena was the receptionist for Stella’s floor, and there would only be one reason why she was calling. Stella was hurt. Or worse. Dana spun on her heel and went back through the door she just came in, purse still on her shoulder, heels clicking on the hallway floor.

“What’s happened? Is she okay? Where is she? I can—” Dana flew down the stoop and looked desperately on the street for a cab, contemplating running instead.

“Whoa! Wait, no, she’s okay!”

Dana took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest. She dreaded that call, every second, and was beyond relieved.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Scully. I’m just a little distracted. Stella, well…” Treena still spoke quietly, but now with some urgency. “She’s sick.”

“What are her symptoms?”

“Cough, headache, runny nose. That was during the meeting this morning,” she whispered. “Now she’s asleep on her desk – that’s not like her at all, Dr. Scully. I’m worried she’s really sick. She needs to go home.”

Scully felt like she could breathe again. The flu, she could handle. “Which is why you’re whispering.”

“Yes. I came in here to tell her she could leave early for the weekend, since she wasn’t feeling well earlier, but now she’s… pale. And snoring. And you’re her emergency contact, Dr. Scully, and I thought you’d want to know, to come pick her up?”

She was Stella’s emergency contact? Dana shoved that thought aside for later and tucked the phone to her chest to yell at an empty cab. Mercifully, it pulled over. “Treena, I’ll be there in 20 minutes. You did good calling me, thank you.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

-

Stella looked horrible. Treena wasn’t exaggerating – in fact, she was probably been a little too nice in her description of ‘pale and sleeping.’

Dana told the cab to wait downstairs, just in case they needed to get to a hospital, but from a quick exam she determined Stella was simply suffering from the flu, and would likely be very achy when she woke her up from being slumped over the desk.

Dana started soft. “Stella? Stella, sweetheart. You need to wake up.”

“Hmmmmm…”

Dana rubbed up and down her back, trying to rouse her a little more. “Stella love, I can’t carry you. So you need to get up so we can go. Then you can sleep a bed and not your desk.”

Dana’s initial plan was to get Stella to her own home, but Dana’s was closer and more accessible, just a few stairs to the entrance and then it was one level. At Stella’s they would have to fight a flight of stairs just to go to the restroom, and in Stella’s condition it wouldn’t be easy.

Dana jostled her a little more until Stella woke up enough to bat at her hand. She missed by a mile.

“Don’ wanna…”

“There you are.”

Stella blinked in the darkened room. “Ow.”

“I know dear, I’m sorry.”

Stella shifted and groaned. It looked like she was trying to sit up and failing. Dana help guide her back in her chair and grabbed a water bottle from her purse. She must’ve been fighting this sickness for a few days, probably since Dana last saw her, to be this worn out.

“Drink this, then we’ll go.”

Stella looked up at her and Dana’s heart broke. Her eyes were wide and watering, her nose red, the color matching blotches on her cheekbones. She weakly took the half-full water bottle from Dana and began to sip. “Mmm’ sorry.”

“Oh, love.” Dana sighed. “We’ll get you home and all better soon. Can you tell me what’s feels wrong?”

“Headache,” Stella muttered. “Tired. Hurt.” She punctuated her sentence with a weak cough and a wince. “Few days. Was gonna leave early, but…”

Dana felt her head again, this time to soothe more than check her temperature. This was the first time she’d ever seen Stella sick, and it looked like when she fell, she fell hard, and only after wearing herself out more to try and fight it. “You’re running a fever too. Looks like you’ve got the flu.”

“No,” Stella moaned.

“Yes, and it’s time to go home.” Dana slung Stella’s bag over her own shoulder, then shifted and helped Stella stand, reassuring her all the way. “Up you go, there we are.”

The door to Stella’s office opened up and Treena appeared. “Are you leaving now?”

Dana nodded, busy stabilizing Stella next to her as her face lost the little color it had when she stood up.

“I’ve cleared the way to the elevator for you both, not that there are many people left this late on a Friday,” Treena chattered.  “I know Stella doesn’t need people staring at her,” Treena whispered loudly.

“Thanks, Treena. We’ll just,” Stella leaned on her heavily and she had to pause. “We’ll just go now. I’ve got a cab waiting. Thank you.”

-  
Dana managed to get Stella to the cab with relative ease, and only had a moderate amount of trouble getting her out of the cab when they arrived back at her apartment building.

“Two more steps, then we’ll be inside,” Dana said. She had kept up a running commentary in the cab as Stella dozed heavily against her chest, chills shaking her whole body, her hands soothing along her back as she shook with weak coughs. As much as she wanted Stella to rest, she had to stay awake to get home, and now that they were here she had to motivate Stella to get up the stairs outside.

Stella leaned on Dana’s back as she opened the door and then clung to her as she carefully walked in, a veritable limpet of a person. Dana shuffled down the short hall to her door and struggled to find her key amongst the bags she was carrying and Stella’s weight on her back.

“Feel good,” said Stella as she rubbed her cheek on the back of Dana’s neck. Dana hummed a reply as she gave up trying to reach her purse and settled for Stella’s keys in her bag. Pulling out the shiny new key to her apartment, she let them in.

“This is your place,” Stella muttered.

“Nice work, detective,” Dana chided gently. She dropped their bags and Stella let go of her, swaying only a little as Dana locked up.

“Shower, or bed?”

“Bed.”

Dana guided her to the bedroom and helped her patient to sit on the thankfully unmade bed. Stella made no move to undress, her eyes half closed, out of it with fever. Well, it’s nothing that Dana hadn’t done before – it’s just that Stella was usually a more willing participant.  

She quickly stripped her of her suit jacket, her lanyard, and the silky shirt that was a staple to her wardrobe. Stella’s bra was the next thing added to the pile on the floor, then Dana allowed her to lay back onto the bed.

Dana had paused in her running commentary as she tried to remember if she had the right medication, and where it was located, but Stella interrupted her thoughts with a whine.

_“Pants.”_

“Yes, pants are next. Then a new shirt. Then meds and you can sleep, okay?”

“Mmmm kay. Dana.”

Dana took off Stella’s shoes then unzipped and tugged off her slacks, leaving her panties. She found her own big t-shirt from the night before and coaxed Stella into it before tucking the sheets up around her. 

“No sheets. ‘Mm hot.”

“You have a fever, so yes sheets. I’ll be right back.” Dana tucked a strand of hair behind Stella’s ear and kissed her on the forehead before she left to search for meds and water.

-

Dana had never been more thankful for a flu in her life. Her heart had stopped beating when Treena identified herself, the worst-case scenarios running in her head. She and Stella were still new, still building their relationship and love. She wouldn’t know what she would do without her.

Dana brushed off the thought, focusing on finding the flu medication she had apparently hidden. She found them in the kitchen, behind some boxed rice.

What else did she need? It had been ages since she’d taken care of anyone like this. Water, cold compress, attention and patience. And chicken soup, which she’d shoved aside earlier in her search of drugs.

Dana stopped herself, juggling water and pills in her hallway, and took a deep breath. Stella wasn’t dead, she wasn’t dying. She hadn’t gone missing or been hurt in the line of duty. Stella was in her bed safe and sound, albeit sick and miserable.

Her eyes adjusted quickly to the dim lighting, revealing a rumpled Stella dozing, propped up against several pillows.

“Stella, love, wake up a little.”

Stella cracked her eyes the slightest bit. Dana coaxed her to drink more water and take two pills, taking note of the time. 

“Thank you,” Stella breathed. Dana smiled and soothed her hair again. 

“You’ll feel better when you sleep. I’ll be here.”

“Mmmkay,” Stella shifted to get comfortable. Dana tucked her in, making sure the tissues and water were close, and then kissed Stella’s forehead again, partially for a temperature check.

“I’ll be back in a couple hours. Sleep tight.”

“Mmm… love you.”

Dana inhaled sharply and smiled, still hovering over Stella as she drifted under the pull of sleep.

“I love you too,” she confessed back.

Dana clicked off the light and left the door cracked open. Stella was in her bed, getting better, and she loved her. She went back to the kitchen and started cleaning, reassured by the cans of soup in her pantry.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks anon for the prompt!!


End file.
